THE MIDDLE’S NOT SO BAD

In today’s world greatness is all the talk I want to be number one, you want to be number one, and everyone wants to be number one we hear great people tell stories of how they chose not to settle for less and here they are; number one because they chose it, they wanted it, they craved it, they worked hard for it but is it really true I mean most people work for it and most well let’s say it works for them courtesy of the world we live in where things like superior genes, chance or luck and hard work and smart work are real and with social media the competition is just fierce and even so many of us are left behind in the quest for number one for some of us no matter how hard we try, how much we pray, how much we chant, how much we study or meditate we are still helpless against those we consider as number one. They tell us to find a way to stand out, statements like you are unique, you are special are all true except we don’t dig into their real meaning because as soon as we hear the word special we get a sense of entitlement say surely I’m going through this because I’m chosen or meant for something great or whatever ha-ha. Still, I have often wondered when we claim we are doing this for ourselves, why do we end up losing ourselves instead? Each and every day, we hear rising cases of depression and the ones we assumed were number ones committing suicide During my childhood years i remember arguing with a neighbour on the issue of a first and a last, I remembered telling her that no matter how smart children were in a class there was going to be a first and last even if the last did perform well it won’t change the fact that he’s the last which just makes the one with first even if by just one mark superior and no one will care although she disagreed and I can’t clearly remember what point she was trying to make it still doesn’t change the fact that we are not equal, and cannot be equal a very sad truth many of us struggle to accept and because of how i see many people losing themselves it got me wondering is mediocrity that bad that we are all running from it and don’t realise that we are just right there I mean why can’t we see that we are all mediocre in something, we are not good at everything so we have just always being mediocre people we just don’t have the right frame of mind towards it.I have always believed mediocrity to mean something of poor value or terrible quality because of the way it is being used in statements, but recently, while reading a book, I discovered it wasn’t such a bad word. Looking at its history “Mediocrity “comes from the word mediocre, as an adjective its origin, the Latin word “mediocris” which means of medium size, moderate, middle, commonplace, and even closer “halfway to the top” (Merriam Webster), and according to the Cambridge dictionary, it means just acceptable but not good; not good enough. Another website, vocabulary.com, gave different definitions like mediocrity, meaning moderate to inferior in quality, lacking exceptional quality or ability, and lastly, poor to middling in quality. The word “mediocris” comes from two words: medial, which means middle, and Ocris, which means mountain. According to the internet, it means the middle of a mountain, which is neither up nor down, nor here nor there, just in between.Now, the case of not here or there has its effects, but it is not our focus. Let us focus on whether mediocrity is a bad thing or not, from all the definitions and explanations, we can take two words as a summary, and that will be second-rate. Basically it means you’re just not that good well not as good as someone who’s there already I mean if we were in a race and you were ahead of me that makes you faster and better and while I’m yet to get there it only means by the time I do get there you’ll be even farther than I am and if you don’t slack you’ll definitely get there before me and there’s a chance I might not even get there and I might but it won’t change the fact you got there first and you’ll be celebrated by everyone and ill just be celebrated by family, probably, just kidding true for some though back to mediocrity it is such a down heartening feeling knowing you also gave it your best but it was just not enough you hear words like try again next time and some even do but it still doesn’t pay off and they still say you just got to keep trying ha-ha especially those ones who achieved something after a few tries they suddenly become life coaches and motivational speakers not pointing fingers though just saying many people understand what it means to always be in second place literally and figuratively although the feeling will always be different for everyone since our threshold for emotions vary the problem is we ignore the truth like I’m limited I’m not unlimited that’s a popular motivational speech sorry I got it backwards it should be I think I’m not limited , I am unlimited feels more correct could be wrong though I’m confused here too but it is a very popular speech and you know what I mean because you get it a character in the animation castlevania nocturne said an impassioned speech can make even the weakest man think he is brave but the truth is he is weak but our entitled minds only picks out the positivity cause we’ve been taught to always focus on it we forget that negativity is the opposite and will always be a part of life and I will be quoting Alan Watts “the desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience and paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience” like how I know I’m human and the older I get the more limited I become helps me to always know what I’m supposed to do like don’t snatch candy from a baby hmmm that example doesn’t feel right but still don’t snatch candies from babies but accepting the bad makes me become good lets work with this break it down in your own way though cause I’m lost. When it comes to mediocrity, I think it is the feelings we carry that matter. Mark Mason once said in his book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a fuck, that if everyone were extraordinary, that means everyone’s ordinary. When we carry the mindset that we are not that great at all, that some people are better than us and develop a yearning for self improvement that, when others are running up the mountain we know its better if we simply walk step by step we understand that what’s wrong is to stop moving or not move at all, we welcome the odds identify our weaknesses and accept reality for what it really is; that there is going to always be someone stronger, that we are not special and its okay but we are going to keep going up the mountain why? Because you are going up too, and even if you’re ahead, we are still walking up the same mountain, and we are okay with mediocrity, which means we totally grasp reality and are willing to accept it. It also means we have the same ability as those we consider better and the difference is that they are better depending on varying factors and that’s okay because sometimes the best place to be at is nowhere land okay that’s very bad but the best place to be at is right there in the midst, in the middle walking, watching, observing and growing even if slowly because we are mediocre we are not up there but we are also not down there and it cannot get worse than that.This write-up is not for the lazy ones or people looking for someone to tell them to stop trying. It's simply an encouragement to those who understand that self-improvement, no matter how little, is all that matters, no pressure, just steady, sure steps.